Citrix maintenance mode via PowerShell

Jul 31, 2015
/
XenApp/XenDesktop

This is a task you will have likely carried out, on a regular basis during your day to day Citrix farm administration. You have Citrix VDA machines that you need to put in maintenance mod. Maybe it’s one machine, maybe it’s a dozen. The reasons can be to carry out maintenance, or upgrades. Whatever the reason, yes you can do it via Studio, but what about PowerShell?

Of course you can do it via PowerShell too! If you’re like me and more interested in getting comfortable with PowerShell then here’s a little note on how to put machines in maintenance mode via PowerShell with a few example scenarios.

Firstly, launch PowerShell either via studio or by running Add-PSSnapin Citrix.* within your PowerShell console.

Machines used in scenarios:

CitrixDesktop1
CitrixDesktop2
CitrixDesktop3

Scenario 1 – Put CitrixDesktop1 in to maintenance mode

Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject DOMAIN\CitrixDesktop1 $true
Get-BrokerMachine -MachineName DOMAIN\CitrixDesktop1 | fl InMaintenanceMode

The first command sets the machine in maintenance mode. The second queries for the end result.

Scenario 2 – Put CitrixDesktop1 and CitrixDesktop2 in to maintenance mode

Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject DOMAIN\CitrixDesktop1, DOMAIN\CitrixDesktop2 $true

Scenario 3 – Put all three machines in to maintenance mode

$machines = Get-BrokerMachine -MachineName DOMAIN\CitrixDesktop*
Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machines $true

The first command gets a list of machines with CitrixDesktop in their name. The second puts them in to maintenance mode.

Tags: citrix, maintenance mode, powershell

34 Comments

SunilKumar Botu
June 9, 2017

Thanks but how do I put multiple machines with different names in a delivery group. I cant use wild card. thanks in advance. I am looking to give machine list as input file and run a loop.

Reply
- George Spiers
  June 9, 2017
  
  $machines = Get-Content C:\MachineList.txt
  foreach ($machine in $machines) {
  Add-BrokerMachine “DOMAINNAME\$machine” -DesktopGroup “DeliveryGroupName”
  }
  
  Reply
  - chandra
    July 4, 2018
    
    Hi George,
    
    can you help me with the powershell script/command to bring multiple xenapp servers out of maintenance mode.
    emailid:chandraobulreddy9@gmail.com
    
    Reply
    - George Spiers
      July 4, 2018
      
      Have a look at the scenarios, there should be enough tips there to help you get started with a script?
      
      Reply
      - mike
        July 17, 2020
        
        Hi George, would you be able to provide me with a few good Citirix engineer question and answers? I am a technical recruiter and I am limited as to what I can tech out for. TY in advance!
  - Essie
    January 17, 2019
    
    Thanks man!
    Easy to adapt to many uses.
    Cheers!
    
    Reply
Santosh Kumar
October 27, 2017

How do you send a message to all the connected users using PowerShell script? If the names of the machines are different.

Reply
- George Spiers
  October 27, 2017
  
  Are you using server based hosts or VDI desktops? You know Restart Schedules via Studio can send notifications for you?
  
  Reply
Muthu
January 31, 2018

To put list of machines with different names into maintenance mode.

asnp citrix.*
Get-Content C:\MachineList.txt
foreach ($machine in $machines) {Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}

Reply
Henk
August 17, 2018

I have 5 Citrix servers where users loggin for a 24hour operation tasks. But I would like to restart them randomly once in a week.

How can I randomly restart 5 Citrix servers without affect the logged in users?

Reply
- George Spiers
  August 19, 2018
  
  You can use tags to restart servers separately without having to create multiple Delivery Groups: https://jgspiers.com/create-multiple-restart-schedules-xenapp-xendesktop-7-12/
  
  You can also send a message to users instructing them to log off in X minutes due to an upcoming restart.
  
  Reply
  - Anonymous
    January 20, 2020
    
    Hi George,
    Please help me with monthly or 15 days reboot schedule reboot command lets only have for weekly/Daily . How do i achieve it.
    
    New-BrokerRebootScheduleV2 -DesktopGroupUid 1 -Frequency Weekly -Name WeeklyRebootSchedule-HR -RestrictToTag HR -StartTime 01:00:00 -RebootDuration 0 -WarningDuration 15 -WarningMessage “Please log off as this machine will restart in 15 minutes”
    
    thanks in advance, appreciate your help
    
    Reply
    - George Spiers
      February 17, 2020
      
      That is the limitation, you have to use scripts to achieve something different
      
      Reply
John
December 13, 2018

There are several ways to do this. Of course you can write your own… But the wheel is invented more than once…
George have one..
I ‘m happy to use the one provided by Miguel Contreras from Citrix with a few modifications
https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2017/06/19/xenapp-7-x-reboot-schedules-2017-edition/
It staged (even and uneven) with drain mode and reboot countdown 😉 so your DG is always up.

Some one ( or 2-3 liners) to get inspired 🙂

$drainTimer 180
$deliveryGroup = “Delivery group name”
Get-BrokerMachine -DesktopGroupName $deliveryGroup -InMaintenanceMode 0 -PowerState On -MaxRecordCount 5000 | Set-BrokerMachine -InMaintenanceMode 1

$drainTimer = $drainTimer * 60
Start-Sleep $drainTimer

# Herstart after 30 min (note start-sleep in seconds, You have to get to 1800 s)
$drainTimer = $drainTimer * 10
Start-Sleep $drainTimer
Get-BrokerMachine -DesktopGroupName $deliveryGroup -InMaintenanceMode 1 -PowerState On -MaxRecordCount 5000 | New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -Action ‘Restart’

Get-BrokerMachine -DesktopGroupName $deliveryGroup -InMaintenanceMode 1 -PowerState On -MaxRecordCount 5000 | Set-BrokerMachine -InMaintenanceMode 0

John

Reply
Joevany
February 5, 2019

Nice script, however can you please help ?
I only want to place my VDI into maintenance mode if AD user Account is either inactive/disabled. Do you have a script for that? Thanks

Reply
Teague Williams
July 18, 2019

George. I am deploying multiple independent sites and using resource aggregation for failover. I have a DG (primary) with all the desktops in an unregistered/faulted state. when I attempt to launch the desktop, I get “no-available-workstation”. when I put the DG into maintenance mode, the desktop launches from the DR site. it works properly when I down the DDCs at the primary site as well. I would think that the “no-available-workstation” should lead to a resource launch from teh DR site as well. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

I was thinking about writing a PS script using Get-BrokerDesktopGroup to detect if there are “no-available-workstations” and set the DG to maintenance mode using Set-DesktopDeliveryGroup. What combinations of the following properties would satisfy the conditions. I was thinking something like this:

if desktopsavailable = 0 then set DG maintenance mode
-or-
if SUM(DesktopsFaulted+DesktopsInUse+DesktopsNeverRegistered+DesktopsPreparing+DesktopsUnregistered) = TotalDesktops then set DG maintenance mode

DesktopsAvailable : 0
DesktopsDisconnected : 0
DesktopsFaulted : 5
DesktopsInUse : 0
DesktopsNeverRegistered : 0
DesktopsPreparing : 0
DesktopsUnregistered : 5
TotalDesktops : 5

Do you have any recommendations? Thanks.

Reply
- George Spiers
  July 20, 2019
  
  Sounds like you are on the right track at least. If these are VDI desktops then you could use the “DesktopsAvailable” property.
  
  You could alternatively look at doing something with “Get-BrokerDesktop” and the “RegistrationState” property which will have a value of Unregistered, Initializing, Registered or Agent Error.
  So for desktops detected not to be registered, place them into maintenance mode.
  
  Also the Delivery Controller is supposed to place VMs in maintenance mode after so many registration failures. See here at some of the registry edits you might be able to make to help: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126704
  
  Reply
kartik
August 15, 2019

George I have mutiple Sites configured in my environment per datacenter. How can i get the consolidated report of all Site how many machines are unregistered and how many machines are in maintenance mode through powershell tool.

Reply
Sakthi
February 11, 2020

Hey George,

How we put multiple machine in maintenance if they are unregistered state ?

Reply
- Anonymous
  February 17, 2020
  
  HI Goege,
  
  I would like to have a script to check the which are in Maintenance Moe and who move it to MM mode.
  Thanks
  Sur
  
  Reply
- George Spiers
  May 10, 2020
  
  For example:
  $machines = ‘JGSPIERS\VDA01′,’JGSPIERS\VDA02’
  Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode $machines $true
  
  Reply
  - Inay
    June 30, 2020
    
    Hello George,
    Need your assistance on the below..
    I have a set of VDA servers running on 7.15 controller that needs to be placed in maintenance, so i have below edited script
    
    **********************************************************************
    asnp Citrix*
    
    $machines = Get-Content C:\temp\Temp\Servers.txt
    
    foreach($machine in $machines) {
    
    Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}
    ************************************************************************
    But when i execute the above script, it is giving the below error, could you please assist me
    
    Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode : No items match the supplied pattern
    
    At C:\temp\Script.ps1:4 char:1
    
    + Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}
    
    + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    
    + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode], SdkOperationException
    
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Citrix.XDPowerShell.Broker.NoMatchingItems,Citrix.Broker.Admin.SDK.SetBrokerMachineMaintenanceModeCommand
    
    Reply
Anonymous
June 30, 2020

Hello George

Reply
Anonymous
June 30, 2020

Hello George,
I have edited the script in such a way that it can place a set of servers in maintenance mode
Controller is 7.15, Kindly let me know if you need any other details.
****************************************************************
asnp Citrix*

$machines = Get-Content C:\temp\Temp\Servers.txt

foreach($machine in $machines) {

Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}
************************************************************************
But I am getting the below error

Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode : No items match the supplied pattern

At C:\temp\Temp\AE Script.ps1:4 char:1

+ Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}

+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode], SdkOperationException

+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Citrix.XDPowerShell.Broker.NoMatchingItems,Citrix.Broker.Admin.SDK.SetBrokerMachineMaintenanceModeCommand

Thanks
Inay

Reply
Dibakar Basu
July 23, 2020

in the Servers.txt update the machines names as Domain\ machine name, save and then run the below command

asnp Citrix*
$machines = Get-Content D:\Servers.txt
foreach ($machine in $machines) {Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $machine $true}

Reply
- Anonymous
  July 29, 2022
  
  Could you please tell how to delete multiple virtual desktops/laptops from Citrix using powershell script
  
  Reply
RV
December 29, 2020

Hello George,

How do I get the report/list of policies with Name and its settings which will be shown in the Policies tab in Studio with PowerShell?

Reply
MDroege
January 11, 2021

Hello George,
when I run the script i get the error “The term ‘Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet”
I added the

Reply
- Anonymous
  January 11, 2021
  
  Cmdlet before
  
  Reply
Reda.DZ
September 8, 2021

here how I do it:

asnp citrix*
$VMs = (Get-BrokerMachine | Where-Object {$_.InMaintenanceMode -eq $True}).MachineName
foreach ($VM in $VMs){
Set-BrokerMachineMaintenanceMode -InputObject $VM $false

}

Reply
Naresh K
March 14, 2022

Hi George ,

I have some 30 machines in our studio, at sometimes the servers are going into unregistered state due to the heavy load index on the server. I am planning to implement a task in which when the load index of the server reaches maximum load the server has to undergo maintenance mode until and unless the load decreases on it. After a while when the load decreases the server automatically has to come out of maintenance mode. Could you pleas suggest me here. How can I proceed with the things.

Reply
James K
July 25, 2022

Hello,

I am struggling mightily with a script that should be working and I can’t figure out why it’s not.

It’s a script to power on any machines that are powered off in the environment.

Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
asnp citrix*
$Servers = Get-BrokerDesktop | Where-Object {$_.PowerState -eq “off”} | Select MachineName
$Servers | ForEach-Object {
New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -Action TurnOn -MachineName $_
}

I have two machines powered off in the environment specifically to test this, and I confirmed that the $_ variable contains two items.

MachineName
———————
Test\Test01
Test\Test02

But when I run the script, I get this error twice:
New-BrokerHostingPowerAction : Machine not found
At C:\scripts\Citrix-Restart-Unregistered.ps1:9 char:1
+ New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -Action TurnOn -MachineName $_
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (:) [New-BrokerHostingPowerAction], SdkOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Citrix.XDPowerShell.Broker.UnknownMachine,Citrix.Broker.Admin.SDK.NewBrokerHostingPowerActionCommand

For some reason it appears that the variable isn’t being passed. I do not understand what is happening here at all.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Reply
Vincent S.
December 27, 2022

I ran in the same issue and know $VM has a value “domain\VMname”.

$svr = Get-BrokerDesktop -Filter {DesktopGroupName -eq ‘CitrixDesktop’} -PowerState off | select MachineName
foreach ($vm in $svr){
#New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName $vm -Action Reset
Write-Output $VM
}
Results:
New-BrokerHostingPowerAction : Machine not found
At line:1 char:1
+ New-BrokerHostingPowerAction -MachineName ‘$vm’ -Action Reset
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (:) [New-BrokerHostingPowerAction], SdkOperationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Citrix.XDPowerShell.Broker.UnknownMachine,Citrix.Broker.Admin.SDK.NewBrokerHostingPowerA
ctionCommand

Thanks,

Reply
Anonymous
September 20, 2023

I am trying to figure a way to put VDA in Maintenance mode by Restricted Tag

Reply